Do arts professionals spend too much time staring at the slots on their planning wall calendar? Do we suffer from week-itis? Or is there really an advantage – beyond simple marketing – in providing a time-limited focus for particular kinds of arts activities?

Today, Friday 23 November, marks another: Takeover Day in museums. Run by Kids in Museums as part of a nationwide, cross-industries campaign from the Children's commissioner, it invites young people across the UK to take over museums by being given meaningful, decision-making roles within them.

More than 1,600 children are expected to participate this year, doing everything from acting as director to curating, front of house, catering, giving tours, writing trails, manning the Twitter feed, designing the website and emptying the pest traps like the conservators do. Lots of XS-sized white rubber gloves have been ordered. One museum is even asking its young visitors to approve staff holidays.

For many of the ninety museums being taken over, this is a new relationship. At the first Takeover Day in 2011, the most frequent question museums asked us was "Where do we find these young people?" as if they were a rare species spotted only in the wild. Takeover encourages these hesitant organisations to search out young people to work with. Having a defined and named day provides the impetus, structure and support to do this.

Of course, lots of museums already involve teenagers with youth forums and other activities. Takeover Day has a role for them as well. It's an opportunity to showcase their work to a wider public (the media loves photos of kids dusting down 18th century French porcelain). And this public profile for youth work acts as an internal advocacy tool for those working hard to promote the involvement of young people within their own organisations. "Look what attention it gets us!" they can tell the reluctant curator. "Look how many more tickets we'll sell to our next teen event!" they will point out to the finance manager.

Even if a museum regularly welcomes teenagers, say, they might not be the same teenagers who come for Takeover. Many of the kids taking part in events today will never have visited before. A targeted day, designed for you and on which you're given a specific, involved role is more user-friendly than an open invitation. Any by the end of the day, one outcome may be that teenagers who haven't previously thought a museum was their patch are asking about internships and volunteering opportunities. It's difficult to imagine how that could happen so quickly in any other way than on a targeted day.

Of the many roles young people will assume, one of the most important will be acting as problem solvers. A museum might have a space that is rarely wandered into or be putting on family events that only a handful of families actually attend.

Takeover is an opportunity to ask children why, then invite them to come up with a solution. Barnsley Museums have even given young people a budget to make it happen. And that's because Takeover Day isn't – or shouldn't – wrap up when the museum closes.

Bragging about how many teenagers designed your website one November morning misses the point. The challenge is to make Takeover an ethos and an orthodoxy, not an event.

Black History Month is a good example of how this can happen. When it first launched in the UK, there was little black history taught or recognized in education and the arts. If the commitment had been one month each year, the venture would have been a failure. Instead, the month introduced new ideas to new audiences, and seeped out into year-round practice. Now black history is embedded in the curriculum and beyond.

One month, one week, one day is never enough. But it can be the first in a long-term relationship.

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